Just a quick post to say that whooper #733 has been found. He was the immature whooping crane from the eastern flock that I reported had gone missing on his migration down to Florida.
From the Operation Migration website:
They found the young chick standing in a small area of water across the fence from a [...]

Back in 2003, the National Wildlife Refuge System celebrated its centennial anniversary with various events held around the country that showcased the amazing collection of 535+ refuges that formed the System. Many laudatory speeches were made at that time, including ones by former Secretary of Interior Gale Norton and President George W. Bush, during which [...]

Reports tell us that one of the whooping crane youngsters — bird #733 — is missing. This is one of the young birds from the eastern flock that is currently being led down the U.S. by a human-powered ultralight. The Courier Journal in Kentucky reports:
The bird, designated “733,” was last seen Friday near the Ohio [...]

Back in mid-October, I posted a Species Closeup of Whooping cranes and talked about the migration of the new eastern flock. At this time the whoopers are still migrating, and if you visit the Operation Migration website, and check in with their field journal, you can follow the whoopers’ progress and see photos of them [...]

Wild turkeys, which were hunted almost to extinction, are now thriving in many areas thanks to habitat protection provided by national wildlife refuges.
Refuges that have healthy turkey populations and offer turkey hunting include Erie NWR in Guy Mills, Pennsylvania; Des Lacs NWR in Kenmare, North Dakota; Mingo NWR in Puxico, Missouri; Minnesota Valley NWR [...]

Back in October, I posted an announcement regarding the National Wildlife Refuge Association 3rd Annual Refuge Photography Contest. This is just a reminder that the contest deadline is December 15, 2007. Results will be announced in March 2008, which marks the 105th anniversary of the establishment of the first national wildlife refuge — Pelican Island [...]

Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina was recently listed as one of the ten most endangered refuges in the Defenders of Wildlife “Refuges at Risk” report. (See previous posts about two other endangered refuges — Cape May NWR and Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR).
Pea Island NWR is located on Hatteras Island, just south [...]

Marine debris is a deadly problem for wildlife all around the world. An estimated 6.4 million tons of marine debris pollutes our oceans and coastlines, and more than 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.
On the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge — which is [...]

On November 7, 2007, Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would protect the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the threat of oil and gas exploration by designating it as federally protected wilderness. The bill — S.2316 — currently has 25 cosponsors.
According to Senator Lieberman’s [...]

In Thursday’s issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer, there was an excellent editorial by Matt Blake, the project manager for the American Littoral Society (a coastal environmental group) in Delaware’s Bayshore region, about the impact of budget cuts on New Jersey’s five national wildlife refuges.
As Blake points out in his commentary, the Bush administration’s budget [...]